A lot of weight on your shoulders
by Awriterinmanyfandoms
Summary: In a small AU, instead of escaping in defeat, Tord is captured and put under house arrest. (Rated K due to brief mentions of blood, nothing gory) Only two one shots between Matt and Tom! NOTE: THIS SERIES IS COMPLETED, DO NOT ASK ME TO WRITE MORE
1. Tom and Tord

When Tom went downstairs, the last thing he was pleased to see sitting on the couch was a very bored, and irritated Tord.

Needless to say, the house arrest sentence wasn't the exact punishment anyone was looking for-especially Tord-, but their Norwegian 'friend' had several connections that gave him the lesser of two evils. After having the house rebuilt, all four were quick to establish three very important rules:

 **Tord wasn't allowed to take/do anything without permission**

 **Tord wasn't allowed to anyone's room but his own**

 **Tord wasn't allowed to use the phone for "personal" calls**

Naturally, Tord was the most against the new rules and even attempted to leave a few times, but he was quickly restrained and brought back home every time. Now, he'd seem to cool down and, for the most part, kept to himself; rarely speaking unless spoken to first. Despite walking around the house with a very haughty air, Tord was more distracted than angry, muttering plans to himself or closed up in his room working and drawing up blueprints. Their days would usually be tense, the three trying to avoid or flat out ignore their old friend, who didn't seem to care much about the quiet, and their nights were filled with dread. Edd would prepare dinner for four, but Tord would rarely from his room, leaving the three to discuss either their roommate, or anything else but their roommate. But whenever Tord did make his sudden entrance, dinner didn't last very long. It would be very quiet, and after ten minutes, they'd all finished dinner quickly before disappearing to their nightly errands; Edd to his commissions, Matt to his reading, Tom to his practice, and Tord to...whatever it is he did.

It was like clockwork, everyone could avoid everyone and the world spun normally.

Until Tord broke the cycle, and stayed downstairs.

This left Tom in a most aggravated position; he wanted to watch the news, and here was Tord, sitting on _his_ couch, in _his_ house, and watching some inane bloody B-Movie.

"You gonna _move_ any time soon?" He sneered, crossing his arms and eyeing his red-hoodied roommate.

Tord's eyes remained glued to the television as he replied, coldly, "Free world. I can watch what I want." Tom gritted his teeth, growing angrier as he was ignored further, but swallowed his fury and added "Don't you have anything better to do _commie_?"

Usually, the spiteful nickname would earn him a cruel response, but Tord seemed less interested in Tom, and more on his program.

"Are you going to answer me?"

Silence.

"Giving you 30 seconds."

More silence.

" _Fine_. Won't move? I'll stay here then."

For ten minutes, the two refused to stand down, leading both Tom and Tord to grow angrier. About ready to explode, Tom readied his next jab, but the phone rang, knocking the two out of their silent rivalry. From the kitchen, they could hear Edd, somewhat confused at the voice from the other line, but as soon as the name 'Paul' was mentioned, Tord jumped up and sprinted to Edd's side, demanding the line.

Tom couldn't have cared less and took the couch for himself, smirking as he changed the channel to the news. From the kitchen, he heard Edd and Tord arguing, obviously about the mysterious man on the phone and how Tord didn't have the privilege to continue his 'personal' calls, and soon after, the Norwegian returned to the living room to his anger at seeing his spot taken.

" _Get off_."

"What?" Tom replied nonchalantly, raising the volume, " _You_ moved. It's _my_ spot now." He almost reveled in Tord's furious glare, but what he didn't expect was a tired sigh and a shrug.

"Whatever…"

The sudden change in voice surprised Tom, and from the corner of his eye, he watched as Tord disappeared upstairs without another word.

Curiously, Tom went to the kitchen and joined Edd in cleaning the dishes, and as they fixed everything up he asked "So who was that on the phone?"

"Some guy asking for Tord," Edd explained, "he seemed really nervous and wasn't happy when I said they couldn't talk. Must've been super important though…"

"Why?"

"Well...have you ever seen Tord look so desperate?"

Tom had to admit, Tord wasn't really one to show emotion, and when he did it was between two specific ones: contempt and anger. Him worrying didn't seem like a normal 'Tord' reaction. But, at least to Tom, it wasn't any of their business, though Edd seemed to be concerned.

"Look," Tom began explaining, "whatever it's about, we shouldn't have to deal with his crap. It was his crap that almost got us killed...remember?"

Edd shrugged, his head more into what he'd heard on the phone "If Tord's upset about it, it must be important."

The conversation ended as soon as the dishes were washed, and the two went along their way, though Tom wasn't very interested in the television anymore. He glanced up the stairs for a minute before giving in and slowly walked up, dreading his own curiosity; Tord was either up to something dangerous, or worried about something dangerous, the latter scared Tom. If Tord was worried about something, it was a sure sign that the threat was very dangerous.

His head had been wrapped up in his thoughts so much that Tom didn't notice that he now stood right in front of Tord's door, most likely locked, but it didn't stop him from placing his hand on the knob and giving it an experimental turn.

Yup, definitely locked.

He sighed and continued on to his room, though he ultimately decided to stop by Matt's; Tom desperately needed some vanity filled ignorance.

"Hey Matt, you free?"

"Nah, I'm good, just rearranging some stuff. Come in!"

At first, the mention of rearrangement made Tom nervous, had their redheaded friend been possessed by another clean freak demon? Thankfully in Matt Land, 'rearranging' meant organizing seflies, from 'most handsome' to 'beautifully-ridiculous-make-God-cry handsome', and Tom could finally breathe. "Have you heard anything about Tord?"

"Well," Matt pondered as he wiped a picture, "I know he's living here!"

Tom held in a slap before adding "No, I mean...did you see anything weird with him?"

This time, Matt eyed him closely, put the picture down and asked "Why do you care?"

"Edd just got a call from one of Tord's friends," Tom explained, "it kind of made him nervous, so I'm just wondering if you knew."

From Matt's shrug, Tom realized that he should've been smarter than to ask him for advice, but the redhead suddenly brought up a very good point, "Why don't you just call the number? We have caller ID."

Tom nearly kissed his roommate, and cursed himself for not thinking about that idea earlier, before rushing down to the nearest phone and finding the number.

He waited impatiently before an automated voice came up "Please state password."

 _Shoot..._

Tom wasn't sure what password would work for this, but he knew something was up now. Turning the phone off, he went back to the television and watched the news carefully, his eyes widening at the small details he'd missed so many times; 'The Red Leader' kept popping up in every news channel, though the mention of them seemed to be very quick, as if the reporters had more important things to dwindle on. But Tom knew better than to push it aside, because he knew who the Red Leader was, and he also knew why Tord had gotten so on edge with the phone call.

Before he realized it, Tom was up calling friends, acquaintances, and even people he hated, asking for details about the elusive vigilante group. For the most part, all he got was a mix of annoyance and confusion, but he was lucky to get a few tidbits.

The organization was apparently very hard to find, and mentioning it usually left people stunned since few people knew about it. The Red Leader was different, people didn't know the identity, but they knew of him; calculating, cold, and incredibly clever, the Red Leader was infamous for gathering hundreds of loyal soldiers with the intent of controlling the world, but the purpose was unknown. But with the little information he was given, Tom was sure that he knew the Red Leader.

So, with a mix of determination and trepidation, Tom gathered his thoughts to confront Tord...only to realize (after checking his watch) that it was two in the morning, there was no way anyone was up now. He sighed, unsure if this bravery would last him until tomorrow, but sudden footsteps coming down the stairs shook him into reality. From the stairs came, a very tired looking Tord, who seemed surprised to see that he wasn't the only one up.

After some silence, Tom decided to speak up. "...Hey."

"Hey."

They both stared at each other awkwardly, Tom fully aware of his roommate's secret, and Tord unsure of what Tom was thinking. He finally cleared his throat and nodded towards the kitchen, "I was just gonna get some water. I'll leave you to it…" With that, the Norwegian disappeared into the kitchen, and Tom listened carefully as the other rummaged through the fridge.

Less than a minute later, Tord reappeared, water in hand and eyes glued to the news channel Tom was currently on. "What're you watching?"

"Nothing, just some news."

"Oh, okay."

At this point, Tom was sure Tord realized it, because his usually collected demeanor changed into a nervous one. Seeing as he wanted to leave immediately, Tom finally spit it out. "What have you been doing... _Red Leader_?"

The mention of the title stunned Tord, as Tom had expected, but instead of leaving the red-hoodied roommate stood his ground and finally muttered "So...you know…"

"Yup."

"You gonna tell Edd and Matt?"

"Not sure yet."

"...Okay."

Tom looked at his former friend curiously, he half expected Tord to blow up or hide the accusation with some sort of laugh or joke, but he was very calm, as if he knew that this was going to happen. Tom could also see how tired Tord looked, it was the first time he'd seen anyone so sleep deprived; being the head of a semi-possible-terrorist/vigilante group (seriously, Tom was going to need to do more research) would take a lot out of someone.

"Is Paul a solider?"

"Classified."

"Is he with you?"

"It's _classified_ Tom."

"Do you know him?"

"It's-"

"I'm not asking anything about your thing, I'm just asking if you know Paul."

"...Yes."

Tom nodded, sure that this conversation was making Tord incredibly uncomfortable. At any other time, he would've relished in seeing the Norwegian look so awkward and upset, but this was different. This was Tom seeing one of his oldest friends, not as a trigger happy hentai obsessed annoyance, but as a very tired and very stressed commander.

After a long period of silence, Tom finally grabbed the remote and changed it to a zombie movie, catching Tord's attention; Tom could see him shuffle uncertainly, but the testosterone-filled movie won, and the two sat together on the couch, watching the bloody action flick in silence.

Tom looked at Tord after some time and asked "Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"...It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"...Okay…"


	2. Matt and Tord

Matt's day was just getting better and better.

First, he got an incredibly itchy rash from an unfortunate allergic reaction, and second, he got news that he was the one to stay home while Edd and Tom went on their errands. Usually, he'd go with them, but because 'dear' Tord was under house arrest, and no one trusted him to stay alone, someone had to stay behind.

And of course, because Matt was the one with the rash, he had to stay home with the crazy trigger happy sociopath. Despite his friends' reassurances that Tord wasn't going to hurt him, Matt stayed in his room for the first hour with the door locked, though ultimately, nothing had happened. He'd called Tom a few times, asking and asking how long it would take, but from his friend's answers, it would take a while...and he was getting hungry.

So, swallowing his fears, Matt unlocked the door and quietly snuck out with his lamp by his side for a makeshift weapon; passing by Edd's room was simple enough, but when he saw Tord's door wide open, he began to worry. Tord rarely had the door open by a smidge, so seeing it completely open made Matt shake nervously, and after glancing in, his fears grew when the Norwegian was nowhere to be seen.

Matt slowly made his way downstairs, and even though he didn't see Tord in the living room or kitchen, he was sure that the elusive roommate had to be somewhere...right? He began considering if Tord has tried to escape house arrest again, but a pained groan quickly proved him wrong.

Oh man...how could've he missed the downstairs bathroom?

Matt's grip on his lamp tightened as he neared the bathroom, and shakingly grabbed the doorknob; hesitation wouldn't do him any good now, so with a deep breath, Matt swung the door open "Okay Tord, what're you u _p t-AHHH!_ "

He hadn't meant to scream, but taking one look at his former friend's face was frightening as it was. Seeing Tord without his bandages was nothing new, he'd have to let the scars and wounds breathe, and for a few hours, everyone could see Tord's physical punishment; the right side of his face was covered with third degree burns, his eye painfully shut (and mostly useless now), and his right arm completely burned. Tord had tried to fix himself up with a mecha arm replacement, but because of his house arrest, he'd just have to wait until the end of his sentence.

But this wasn't how Tord usually looked; the scars opened up, leading to a lot of blood scattered on the towels he'd thrown down, and his eye was completely swollen, a mix of watery pus and blood that nearly made Matt lose his lunch.

Tord, however, didn't seem very bothered-definitely in pain-but his attention was more on how to stop the bleeding than on Matt.

But Matt was quick to ask, " _Tord_?! What _happened_?!"

"Hello Matt…" Was Tord's distracted reply, and from a quick glance with his good eye he added "Nice lamp." He ignored his roommate's confused stammering and haphazardly attempted to bandage his spasming arm. "I don't know what happened, but I got it."

Matt finally collected his thoughts in time to reply "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You don't look very well…"

"I _said_ I got it."

"I can't leave you like-"

"I said _I got-SHIT!_ "

Tord hissed as his attempt to clean up his eye ended up with a horrible sting, and Matt quickly ran to his side, trying to avoid touching the bloody towels. He really didn't want to do this, if anything, he should've been fine leaving Tord to handle it on his own, Tord was an adult of course.

But...damn his caring side!

Matt grabbed a few more clean towels and motioned Tord to sit rather than stand. "You look really pale, if you keep standing, you could pass out."

"I wasn't gonna pass out," The Norwegian muttered, looking down at the ground as he sat beside Matt, his hand still on his swollen eye, "I just wanna be alone."

Matt hesitated, disagreeing with Tord could lead to two things: Vicious anger or hurtful insults, neither of the two seemed worth it to Matt, but if he left his roommate alone in the bathroom like this, there would be more disastrous endings. "Just let me bandage you up...then I'll leave you. Okay?"

Tord didn't reply, so Matt took his silence as an agreement and began looking for more gauze and bandages; aside from the crinkling of the open package, there was pure silence in the bathroom, Matt, too afraid to say anything, and Tord, a bit embarrassed for the help. Matt shuffled closer to his former and (with a wet towel in hand), grabbed Tord's scarred arm to clean it. "I'm just gonna clean off the blood, okay?" Matt whispered, eyeing Tord carefully, "Let me know if it hurts."

At first contact, Tord visibly stiffened, though Matt was unsure if it was because of the pain or if it was just surprised that his old friend touched him, but Matt was careful to clean the blood off before carefully bandaging Tord's arm. As soon as Matt's hands moved away, Tord moved further off, glancing at his fixed arm blankly before attempting to stand.

"What about your face?" Matt spoke up.

"What about it?"

"Well! The face is man's most important feature, without it you're nobody…!" Matt immediately trailed off, realizing that his vanity got the better of him, and shook his head with a nervous laugh. "Sorry, I didn't mean that…"

What Matt didn't expect was a soft chuckle from Tord, who now glanced at the mirror. "I thought scars were charming to ladies."

The joke almost shocked Matt, but he grinned, feeling far more at home with his former friend, and stood up to face with mirror with Tord. "I suppose...but don't you think it's a bit excessive? I think you'd scare them to death!"

Tord laughed again, and Matt couldn't help but join in, but they were interrupted with Tord's pained hiss as the laughter bothered his face. Matt's laughter died down, and he looked around for a fresh towel and more bandages, before forcing Tord to sit beside him on the floor again. They sat in silence again, with Matt wetting the towel and Tord looking at his bandaged arm; from the window, they could both see the sunset hues of reds, oranges, and purples, a sight Matt usually enjoyed watching from the roof with Edd and Tom, but he supposed that watching it from the floor of his bathroom was better than not watching it at all. He cleared his throat and motioned Tord to face him so he could wipe the pus and blood from his face.

"Does it hurt?" Matt asked, as he carefully dabbed his former friend's eye, and sighed in relief as Tord gave a small nod, his good eye glued to the floor.

Cleaning up his face was a much more arduous task than Matt had expected, the two had to constantly deal with Tord's bouts of spasms and with their equal desire to not look at each other in the eye, but a quick glance was shared a few times, and to Matt's surprise, he wasn't hating it.

"It's good my face is like this." Tord finally spoke up after the several minutes of tense silence, and Matt raised an eyebrow curiously, momentarily taking the towel away to clean the blood off. Tord gave a small laugh before adding "I'd like to be nobody."

Matt eyed Tord out of the corner of his eye as he watched the towel, and for a second, his own eyes went to the mirror where he could see his allergic rash...somehow it didn't seem that bad. Still, he shook himself out of his thoughts and returned to the floor beside Tord before asking "What do you mean?"

"Without a good face, you're nobody." Tord replied, his attention to the window, where the sunset was finally giving way to night and a few stars crept into the sky. Matt grimaced, fully aware that his red-hoodied roommate swung his own words back at him.

"Sorry…"

"No, don't be. I want to be nobody."

"Why?"

Tord didn't reply, so Matt decided to take advantage of the silence to continue cleaning up his face, though he couldn't help himself and asked again "So...why?"

Tord finally looked at him and shrugged. "Once you live like me, you'd rather be nobody. It's easier."

Matt nodded very slowly, knowing that Tord was talking about his reason for disappearing, but still couldn't really understand. "That's why you didn't call us?"

Tord didn't say anything, he just sat very still and ignored Matt's hurt look; Matt continued his work, grabbing the bandages and carefully placing them over Tord's scarred face, though now he was less interested in the wounds, and more on Tord's secret.

But it was fairly clear that he didn't want to talk, so they both sat in complete silence, their eyes on the window and night sky, now dark and cloudy with only a fewest stars peeking out. From the corner of his eye, Matt could see Tord's disappointment, possibly due to how dull the sky looked now, and Matt couldn't disagree. Usually summer nights were the nicest, even in suburbia, one could see several stars, each with their own glow, and the moon shining from afar. But now, the two just stared at a smoke-like sky, completely gray and completely empty.

"I bet you were able to see all the stars back home." Matt sighed wistfully, hoping that the change of subject would get a response from Tord, especially since it was about Norway; Tord absolutely adored his birth home, whenever he came back from visiting his family, he'd always bring back photos upon photos to show the gang. It would brighten Matt's day, but now, the memory saddened him, knowing that Tord would never really bring back pictures or talk so joyfully with his former friends.

"I haven't been home."

Tord's reply shook Matt out of his reverie, but he was now more confused than anything. "What do you mean?"

"I haven't been to Norway in years…" Tord replied, his voice calm and monotonous, as he continued looking out the window, "I've been too busy."

"So...after all this time you-"

"I haven't gone home, yes."

This left Matt numb, he'd thought that as soon as he left, Tord went straight to Norway; Tord had no home, he wasn't in Norway this whole time, and now he was stuck here for God knew how long. "I'm sorry."

Tord shrugged, though Matt swore he could see regret in his eyes, "You didn't do anything."

"I'm still sorry, that sucks…"

"Hmm…"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired."

"You can tell me if you'd like."

Tord shook his head, leaning his head back to the drawer and tearing his eyes away from the window and to the ceiling. "I can't." Matt nodded, unsatisfied, but fairly content that the rest of his day stuck with Tord went so smoothly; he glanced over to his roommate and thought carefully before finally asking

"What's going on Tord? What've you been doing…?"

Tord shook his head, and turned to finally face Matt, his good eye searching the redhead's worried expression. "I can't tell you."

"Okay. Sorry."

"It's alright…Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"I miss home…"


End file.
